quarantine, restraining their operations and shrinking their output. Therefore, with lockdowns beginning to ease and the economy is opening up, the Australian Food and Grocery Council has warned that empty supermarket shelves like in Britain could also be seen in the country if regulations on close and casual contacts of positive COVID-19 cases are not changed.
According to the association, manufacturers in the states of Victoria and NSW have reported that at any given time during the delta outbreak 25 to 60 per cent of their staff have been in quarantine. As a result, these firms were forced to halt production and to rely on their inventory to meet consumer demand.
“There is enormous pressure in the supply chain at the moment,” the Council’s chief executive Tanya Barden said. “With the recent lockdowns and the extent of the lockdowns you’ve got more demand in the grocery channel and companies are running down inventory.”
Accordingly, she called on the government to change the definition of close and casual contacts, so that anyone exposed to a positive case, but is double vaccinated, has a negative test and shows no symptoms will be able to return to work without self-isolating.
“That’s really crucial for ensuring we have continuity of supply,” Barden noted. “If we don’t get that setting in place, if you pull out workforces and close production lines, there’s a real risk of shortages of product. We need to be able to keep those workforces in place … if we don’t do that, that’s when we end up being like the UK.”
